Five Years Later

Where were you the day our world changed?

I was at home with my then almost-two-year old watching the Disney channel and had not one clue what had happened until my husband called about the first tower. I flipped the channel and watched in abject horror as, right before my eyes on live television, the second plane hit. As it was for many Americans and others around the world, the next couple of days were spent glued to the TV set in disbelief....

It's been five years now and whether or not we're winning the War on Terror is a matter of opinion. But one thing I know is that I'm proud of our country, proud of the military folks laying their lives on the line to protect our freedom and the philosophy of a democratic nation. I believe America is the greatest country on earth and I know I'm damned lucky to live here- even with the problems we still have- and not somewhere else. I also believe that someday we'll look back on that fateful day and say,"That's when is all began. That was the beginning of a painful and difficult change that ultimately led to a better life for all of us."


"O say, can you see, by the dawn's early light,What so proudly we hail'd at the twilight's last gleaming?Whose broad stripes and bright stars, thro' the perilous fight,O'er the ramparts we watch'd, were so gallantly streaming?And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,Gave proof thro' the night that our flag was still there.O say, does that star-spangled banner yet waveO'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore dimly seen thro' the mists of the deep,Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,In full glory reflected, now shines on the stream:'Tis the star-spangled banner: O, long may it waveO'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

And where is that band who so vauntingly sworeThat the havoc of war and the battle's confusion,A home and a country should leave us no more?Their blood has wash'd out their foul footsteps' pollution.No refuge could save the hireling and slaveFrom the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave:And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth waveO'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

O thus be it ever when free-men shall standBetween their lov'd home and the war's desolation;Blest with vict'ry and peace, may the heav'n-rescued landPraise the Pow'r that hath made and preserv'd us a nation!Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,And this be our motto: “In God is our trust!”And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall waveO'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!"
--Francis Scott Key, September 13, 1814